I’m using a 1/8" double flute bit to cut these parts in 3/4" MDF. I have the Depth per Pass set at 4mm, the Feed rate set at 15mm/s and the Plunge Rate at 2.mm/s. My router runs at 2400rpm. Would it be okay to increase Depth per Pass to 5mm and Feed rate to 20mm/s. I don’t want to risk burning or breaking this $20 bit. Also, I’m following the router with my shop vac the whole time, takes about 35 minutes to cut two pieces. Is it necessary to keep the grooves clean or am I wasting time I could be using for something else? Does this increase the life of the bit or help keep it sharp?
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I think you mean 24000rpm?
I don’t have an answer on feeds and speeds. I’m generally conservative but experiment and make small adjustments.
How does it perform at your current settings?
I do this too but am more likely to do it for deeper cuts.
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Its doing fine at the current settings. I would like to speed it up a little since I have about 20 more of these cuts. If I change the depth per pass to 5mm/s it will eliminate one pass per hole.
Jerry
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Rule of thumb, so take that for what you will, is no more than bit diameter for depth, so that would be 3mm ish. Rules of thumb are pretty personal, so there will be someone along shortly that cuts at 9" deep per pass at 140000ipm :laugh:
I think I start mine 1/8th inch bits at 3mm and 30mm, then adjust depending on how the cut sounds. I’m not a pro and I might be a bit conservative, but these are light weight machine so I’m fine with that.
Burning will usually happen by moving to slow, but breaking can happen by moving too fast.
MDF is fairly easy to machine, the dust can be a bugger on your lungs though. I use a dust boot and vacuum running while I’m cutting it. I don’t think you’ll have issues with the material itself and wear a dust mask while it’s cutting. You’ll have a lot of clean up no matter what.
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I changed the depth per pass to 5mm and its working fine so I’ll stick with that. It saves a little time.
Jerry
I was almost finished, everything was going great until I forgot to pull my touchplate clamp off the router bit. I can’t believe I did that again. I found the clamp but I have no idea where my touch plate flew off too. My garage is full of junk. I guess I will have to make one till I find it. Does anyone remember if it connects to S & - pins on the Rambo v1.6 board and does polarity matter?
Agh! Hahaha…that’s the thing about these machines. They just go where they were told to go regardless of what they touch on the way. I’ve had some deep jobs in the past where I realized the tool body was going to be making contact so I chased the Dewalt with a chainsaw clearing away excess as quickly as I could!
I don’t know the pins and just tore mine apart today but I do know polarity shouldn’t matter at all. It’s just completing a circuit.
I just wanted to jump in here and suggest you check out the speed control options for the Dewalt. My Burly was set up for either the 500W spindle (which had it’s own speed control) or the Dewalt. Running the Dealt through the router speed control was so nice. For me it was less about optimizing the machine use and more about working a little bit quieter. I found I rarely (if ever?) needed 24,000 RPM.
The listing is out of date now but the one I bought from the Amazon was called a MLCS 9400 Standard Duty Router Speed Control.
Mine is a Dewalt DW660. How do I control the speed through a speed control? I though I was stuck with 2400rpm.
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yup. That ^^^^^^^^^
It’ll be a whole new machine to you!
Oh wow i thought hf got rid of that!! Well maybe i will get it in case anything happens to the kobalt. 660 is just sitting there.